Writing Tips at GarySpeer.com

I’m not exactly sure why my mind turned to this subject, but here we are. As a writer, do you rely on any “artificial stimulants” when you do your work? That is, do you feel the need for anything from a soda to mind-altering drugs when you are writing?

Just coffee works for me, thanks. Okay, an occasional diet soda or some nicely chilled green tea works, too.

It has always amazed me to read of very famous authors, and very successful best-selling authors, who I discover used everything from cocaine to pot to just plain tobacco products to “stimulate” their creative juices, or perhaps just keep them mentally active, to get their writing done.

Inevitably, most of those writers either kill or hurt themselves — or simply burn out and drop by the wayside in their writing careers.

It would seem to me, especially in a day when most folks are aware of the evils of this stuff (the marketplace is flooded with every thing from e-cigarettes to special chewing gum just to help people break their nicotine habits), that serious writers now realize the “folly of the fix,” I guess you could say.

To put this plainly: Alcohol, cigarettes, pot, cocaine, and any other of these drugs and various chemical nasties don’t help your creativity. Some people still THINK they do, but the truth is, such stuff destroys your brain cells, destroys your creativity.

My wife and I had a long talk over the weekend (or earlier this week, maybe?) about our future. I’ll say up front, we are both in our early-to-mid-60s, not necessarily “too old,” but certainly pushing the envelope for something like starting a brand new career.

So we’ve compromised — she’ll pretty much keep doing what she’s doing, and I will get back to the roots of what I’ve wanted to do all along: writing novels.

We’d just finished that part of the conversation when I let her in on the plans I had bubbling for a series of fantasy/adventure novels that could run as many as 10 volumes. Her immediate comment was something like: “Oh, that’s great dear. But maybe you should consider something smaller than 10?”

After some good natured joking about recent best-selling authors who’ve died suddenly, leaving their fans in the middle of series books that will never be continued (Robert B. Parker and Dick Francis, to be precise), we moved on to other things.

But I’ve thought about that. Should I truly spend a lot of time expecting to finish and sell a novel at my age? How about planning for a series of volumes? Will “old age,” or Alzheimer’s, or death step in and put a stop to my “series” in a big way??

Then I thought about our financial resources in terms of my dedicating a ton of time and work to novels — and I realized our finances are pretty shaky at best. Finally, I looked at my overweight, underactive body and general mediocre health and realized that was going against me, too. (And I’ve mentioned before, I have no health insurance currently, not federal, state or local, neither short term health insurance NC style nor plain old long term health insurance MO style; none, nada, zip.)

After carefully weighing all those factors at some length and holding follow-up conversations with my dear wife, we concluded this: WHY THE HECK NOT??

Life may be incredibly long or suddenly shortened for any of us. The challenge about living is to LIVE during the days, months, and years we have on this old ball of vegetation, dirt, and water. If you’re in your 20s, and you have a big plan for your writing, go for it. If, like me, you’re in your 60s — or 70s, 80s, etc.! — why the heck not go for it, too?

You’re a writer. You have something better or more fun to do with your time? Then maybe you really aren’t a writer. Go ahead, get busy. Write something we’ll all be proud of.

It’s been awhile since I’ve mentioned “jargon,” so I thought it about time to put together a brief reminder: Avoid using jargon in your writing, except when it’s necessary.

“Jargon” may be loosely defined as language that belongs to a particular group, profession, or activity. So using it becomes necessary when you’re communicating with someone who understands the particular jargon you’re using.

For example, think about the commentators at the current Winter Olympics events (I am writing this about half way through the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics) and about the way they describe the various events. Think about some of the Olympians’ equipment and training techniques, as well as technical standards being used to evaluate their performances.

As a non-winter sports guy, I know what a “luge” is only in rudimentary fashion. It’s a one-person sled driven with the rider lying on his/her back and using a good push off combined with good old gravity to whiz 90-plus miles per hour down an icy funnel toward the bottom of a mountain. The whole process involves all sorts of technical skills and equipment that would be totally obscure to me even if explained. (I don’t even know what “luge” means, unless it’s some European language for “insane, outrageously expensive sled of death.”)

If someone were to tell me the exact process of training and competing in the luge, they probably wouldn’t make any more sense to me than “quick trim burn & cleanse” makes to my everyday eating and diet habits.

You get the point, I’m sure. If you want to discuss couples’ ice skating performances at the same Winter Olympics, please don’t rattle off stuff about “triple something something jumps,” or “double compulsory something something lifts.” Just say, “Wow, that was amazing,” or “Oops! I’ll bet that messed up jump and roll across the ice when she landed really hurt their chances.”

Okay, of course I realize broadcasting the Olympics demands a certain amount of descriptive jargon and techno-babble for those who really do understand all that. But in your normal writing, stay away from jargon when you don’t need jargon.

Remember that well-worn cliche — “KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid” — for most of your writing and you’ll do fine.